connected-clusters-report-energy

University of Birmingham | Climate-KIC 13
Development of the cluster
Creation
In 2006 the AVAESEN cluster was established
out of the willingness of companies in the
energy sector to collaborate by creating
a physical location in order to attract new
members. The initial aims were to act as a
spokes-body for businesses within the sector,
an idea which was also strongly supported
by regional government, creating an
effective lobby. It faced challenges in how to
brand itself, how to navigate the composition
of the sector and how to position the sector
into the future. It overcame this initial set
of challenges through communication,
conferencing, publicity, involvement in
regional government and creating and
sharing business opportunities.
Growth
The cluster continued to grow for
twelve months. At its peak, the cluster had
235 companies. However, in 2007 Spain
entered a recession associated with the
2007–2008 financial crisis. This set the tone
for the cluster’s subsequent development.
The financial crisis meant that government
at all levels had to undergo budget cuts.
Regional government in Spain is responsible
for running and financing most of the local
services, and subsequently they accrued
a large amount of debt, which meant that
significant budget cuts were instigated.
This was mirrored at the national level.
This meant that the cluster, which up until this
point had been reliant on funding from both
national and regional government, faced a
budget crisis of its own. In order to cut back on
expenditure, government funding for clusters
was stopped completely in 2012. Funding for
the renewable energy sector was subjected
to a series of cuts in 2008, 2011 and 2013,
with 20 years’ worth of forward funding being
slashed from the pipeline. As a consequence
of this evaporation of government support,
international investment and pension funds lost
confidence in the Spanish renewable energy
sector and ceased to invest.
This complete change in confidence in the
renewable energy sector led it towards severe
decline. At AVAESEN alone, the number of
member SMEs fell from 235 to less than 100.
In 2013, the new incoming manager,
Bianca Dragomir, inherited a workforce of
two employees, a bank account with €1,000,
a total debt of €600,000 and a cluster funding
model dependent on government funding that
no longer existed. The solution to ensuring the
cluster’s survival was to simultaneously tackle
the immediate issues of saving its members
from collapse whilst saving the cluster
organisation itself from collapse. The actions
taken were twofold; first the funding model
was changed, and secondly business creation
activities were prioritised.
The funding model was converted from a
public-private partnership reliant on subsidy
to a self-sustaining service provider.
This was achieved by administering ‘Tailored
Action Plans’ (TAPs). The TAP model was
fee based; SMEs paid the cluster on a
‘no cure, no fee’ basis. The cluster assessed
the SMEs’ interests, needs and future plans
and subsequently presented them with
what the cluster could offer them: context, a
personalised agenda, funding advice, innovation
and internationalisation opportunities, all based
on their specific profile. SMEs were also given
the opportunity to attend meetings with ten
different potential partners. To date, no SME
has requested a refund, and the cluster
has been able to finance itself in a
self-sustaining manner.
Business creation had to be prioritised at
AVAESEN, as otherwise the base on which it
was built would have ceased growing, leaving
it with no-one to supply expertise and support
services. In order to rebuild the regional,
innovation-driven, cleantech sector, the cluster
launched Spain’s first cleantech accelerator.
Through the Climate-KIC Accelerator
Programme this has grown in number and scale
year on year. Now in its fifth year, it operates on
a national scale. AVAESEN went on to become
the leading partner of the world’s largest green
business idea competition, ClimateLaunchpad.